Tag: aperture

Focus on the Fife and Drum

Posted on by Scott Thomas
It is not a coincidence that I am featuring a photo of The Spirit of America Fife and Drum Corps as Deb Wills did early this month. With this post happening the day before America celebrates it’s 233rd birthday on July 4th, 2009, I wanted to add on to Deb’s excellent post (psst, Deb I … Continue reading "Focus on the Fife and Drum"
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Selective Focus

Posted on by Scott Thomas
I’m sure many of you have seen photos where the subject is tack sharp but the background is totally out of focus. This technique is called Selective Focus and is a simple one to master. Here’s all you need to do. First, put your camera in Aperture Priority mode. Second, set the aperture to the … Continue reading "Selective Focus"
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P for Program Assist

Posted on by Scott Thomas
The past couple of weeks I’ve showed you how to control depth of field with Aperture Priority mode and to slow or freeze motion in Shutter Priority mode. What if I was to tell you about a mode which automatically selects a good exposure (aperture (f-stop) and shutter speed) to start with and allows you … Continue reading "P for Program Assist"
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A is for Aperture Control

Posted on by Scott Thomas
Aperture seems to work in reverse to common sense. Measured in f/stops, the smaller the f/stop, the larger the aperture or opening of the camera’s iris and the more light is allowed to hit the sensor. It also controls the Depth of Field or how much or how little the plane of focus is in … Continue reading "A is for Aperture Control"
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Photographic Innoventions: Before the Moment

Posted on by Scott Thomas
Last week, I talked about Joe McNally’s book, The Moment It Clicks. However, to start making photographs instead of snapshots, you have to think a bit before clicking the camera’s shutter. It takes practice. So, when you are in a Disney park or an event and things start to happen fast or you are with … Continue reading "Photographic Innoventions: Before the Moment"
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Photographic Innoventions: Watch Your Back(grounds)

Posted on by Scott Thomas
One of the problems we all have at Walt Disney World is distracting backgrounds. From sharing the resorts with thousands of other guests to uncooperative animals or characters, backgrounds are hard to control. So, what’s a photographer to do? First, you have to do some very obvious things each time you look through your viewfinder. … Continue reading "Photographic Innoventions: Watch Your Back(grounds)"
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Photographic Innoventions: Bokeh!

Posted on by Scott Thomas
No, it’s not the name of a new ballroom dance craze. Bokeh is used to describe a certain camera lens characteristic. Bokeh comes from the Japanese word “boke” which means fuzzy. Sounds like a strange characteristic for a lens to have, doesn’t it? Bokeh describes how the background looks when shooting with the lens at … Continue reading "Photographic Innoventions: Bokeh!"
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Photographic Innoventions: Best Lens Aperture

Posted on by Scott Thomas
To get the sharpest images possible with your lens, it’s best not to use the widest or smallest apertures. Most lenses are optimized in the f/5.6 – f/11 aperture range and give their best performance when stopped down a couple of f-stops from the widest aperture. If you have a 50mm f/1.8 lens, it’s best … Continue reading "Photographic Innoventions: Best Lens Aperture"
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